We're In Portland!

Today our stuff arrived at our new home in Portland and the long process of unpacking begins. The picture here is of us at Grinnell Lake in Glacier National Park, which is located in northwest Montana, a cold and desolate place that just happens to be amazingly beautiful. Our friend Jason assures us that the part of Montana he comes from is far more boring, so we're not as jealous of his hometown as we might've been.

We left Madison on the 9th after selling our old house, and arrived here in Portland on the 15th. In the meantime, we went to Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, Devil's Tower, and spent two days hiking in Glacier. Yes, we stopped at Wall Drug. Yes, it's just as unexciting as everyone who's been there claims it to be. It's really just a big store. That's it. Plus, you can only get legal drugs. I'm certain that most other places that sell drugs from or up against a wall sell the good stuff, but Wall Drug was a disappointment in that regard. Oh, and we saw the battle field where Custer made his last stand in one of those famous moments of ill-addvised machismo that pervades American culture (the Alamo, anyone?).

Anyway, we had a really good time in Glacier, and although we couldn't actually go to any of the glaciers (the trails were closed because they were still too dangerous from the snow), we could see them from lower down. Plus, there was lots of other snow. We went up to Logan Pass and enjoyed a good snowball fight. Actually, I threw a snowball at Barb and she yelled at me and that was it. Actually, I didn't even throw it AT her, I intentionally threw it in front of her and she STILL yelled at me. Next time I'll probably just hit her to make it worth the response I'm destined to get. So Logan pass was covered in snow even in June, which was really fun becase it was about 70 F out and so the snow was nice and refreshing. And there was a Dutch biker gang.

So we drove on through eastern Washington/Oregon which is a miserably desolate part of the country, but were excited to reach Portland where there was once again trees and greenery. The weather out here is beautifully sunny every day. Most days we've been able to see Mt. Hood while driving around. Anyway, we miss you folks and will be writing more about Nigeria again once we get settled in. Who knows when that will be given how many boxes we have! We won't have internet at home for another week or so either. Happy 1st day of summer!